Duck certain authority
One of the odder words just now is hero,which has virtually turned itself inside out. The anti-herois not just a literary device but a sociological phenomenon. In fiction, the only really bouncy types seem to be the Conans and Elrics— the figures of heroic fantasy. In real life, the 'activist' heroes are actually anti-villians — the violence kids, Hell's Angels, Stokely and Rap. (Or is Dr. Spock the anti-villain, breaking the law by stepping carefully over a police barrier under the eyes of hundreds of carefully motionless police?) Even the natural heroes of our age — the astronauts-in-armour on their flaming charges — are committed to a sit-still stay-in-place talk don't-act performance. Indeed, the closer we get to the actuality of space travel (and we are very close; the less the prospect seems to inflame the public imagination; instead not just popular, but even scientific, interest in UFO's and flying saucers has been considerably renewed in the past two years. He had to register for the draft but as a father in an essential occupation there was little danger of being called up; anyway he would never pass a medical examination with eight fingers. The war sent farm prices up and up; Gladys went to Washington to work for the government; Josey married a sailor home on leave. I know. I am not a bad man or a cruel man; quite to the contrary, I am an ordinary, humane person, and I love my wife and my children and I get along with my neighbors. I am like a great many other men, and I do the things they would do and just as thoughtlessly. There it is in a nutshell. All the photographs showed that there was life on Mars, but unfortunately there were no flags in the pictures to indicate where the Martians stood. Compared with Ratlit I had a stable childhood. ARTHUR C. CLARKE So I twisted my mind like a bright ribbon, folded it, and tied the crazy Christmas knots I love so well. From German to Martian, with love, I did an impromptu paraphrasal of a poem about a Spanish dancer. There was a deep silence as the crowd watched Miss Wellman in her shimmering robe; she swept down the path that opened in front of her as if she were floating. But I had the feeling it was an appreciation of good showmanship they felt. I wondered what it had been like a couple of weeks back. After all, she was only a megatherium, a sloth as big as an elephant, whose kind had been extinct for millions of years until man reconstituted a few of them in the Venusian experiments. Her modifications in the way of fingers and enlarged brain gave her no real qualification to think up to mans level.* * * * On such a mountain, physically, there can be no question over who shall lead. But morally there can. I can remember husbanding my strength, giving Barbank a grudging minimum of aid. I can remember Barbank weakening, relinquishing the lead high on a summit slab. I can remember the look in Barbanks eyes. My Uncle (by the Wardens fourth conjunction) made himself over at the start, being one of the first to realise how it could profit us. Up there, Captain! On those rocks. Isnt that him? Then back to the States for my degree, grad work in linguistics, and more prizes. "Dont bother me about that now," Joey said, withdrawing himself in his head so that the voice was far away where he would not have to listen. "You explain to Dr. Armstrong that you are on his side, that you are grownup like him, and tell me what to do. I wouldnt know when to get up, or what people want ... They would be angry." "Now?" I asked. Joe looked slightly embarrassed..
